- 690g Matthews Cotswold Eight Grain flour
- 760g Matthews Cotswold Wychwood Oat Blend Flour
- 986g water – 68% hydration
- 24g salt
- 16g yeast
Today I made a double batch of bread, only the second time since I got my Ankarsrum mixer. I’d like to do this more often: make one loaf to eat right away, and cut the second in half and put both halves in the freezer for when the current loaf is finished.
I used the eight-grain flour that I use often, together with the Wychwood Oat Blend Flour that I used to make a loaf recently. The oat blend flour is pretty similar to a stoneground white flour; I didn’t find enough of a difference to want to use this again on its own, so I was finished the only bag of this flour that I had bought. The eight-grain flour makes a dense loaf on its own, and combined with another flour makes a nice semi-wholemeal seeded sandwich loaf. My previous loaf used two-thirds eight-grain flour with one-third white flour, so I thought that splitting this one 50/50 would be a good balance. The amounts in this recipe aren’t round numbers: they reflect the amounts I had left in each bag of flour; I didn’t want to bother to open a new bag of the eight grain flour.
I autolysed the flour for half an hour, then mixed for about 12 minutes. The dough was stretchy, and felt a bit too hydrated, but not enough that I needed to add flour. I did a few folds, then put it in a box for bulk fermentation. The kitchen was about 22ยบ during bulk fermentation – I had to turn the radiator on, since it was much cooler when I started – which lasted about 35 minutes. I baked as usual for 45 minutes, and, since I wasn’t using my second pan as a bread cloche, threw some ice cubes in a tray in the bottom of the oven.
The resulting loaf is wonderful, with great crumb and fine oven spring. It’s chewy and flavorful, and the oat blend flour is a good companion for the eight-grain flour, making a loaf that is part-wholemeal but not too dense. This said, I don’t think I’ll buy the oat blend flour again; I don’t find much benefit over a stoneground white flour.
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